Handmark is currently running a sale on its 3D iPhone racer GTS World Racing [App Store]. The game, normally $7.99, is available for $2.99 until October 19th.
The game offers four play modes: Single Race, Challenge Cup, Grand Tour, and Championship. In all, the there are 64 tracks across 16 different locations. The track scenery varies from desert to jungle to icy mountainside, but despite the varying environmental textures, the tracks feel rather similar, overall. The game world features a 3D track landscape and scrolling backdrop that come together to deliver clean visuals that look favorable compared to other iPhone racing titles. The only real graphical complaint might be the use of 2D vehicle graphics. While there is a bit of slowdown when all cars are onscreen at once during the start of a race, the framerate is generally solid.
We reviewed GTS World Racing back in August and were particulary impressed with the feel of its control systems which we believe are the best of any racer currently available on the iPhone.
Handmark recently released a graphics and sound update to the title.
I can believe it! I do think that Apple should be developing some good games themselves though, we've seen what they are capable of!
Quoted from the original article:
''I've seen demonstrations of Sim City, forthcoming for the iPhone and the Touch from Electronic Arts (ERTS), that look more elaborate and sophisticated than any versions I've played before on a desktop PC or console.''
WOW!!!
/me agrees wholeheartedly
"if I worked for the Sony or Nintendo handheld gaming divisions, I’d be watching the holiday sales figures closely."
And what good would that do. If I worked for Sony or Nintendo, I would be working on getting a phone out with the Android OS, plus compatibility chip for DS/PSP games.
It shouldn't be all that difficult. Take the PSP, give it a smaller, more dense screen, keeping the same res. Add a chip for a phone. Replace the CDs with downloadable games, and you're good to go.
Of course it will take time, but both these companies, if they had any sense, have secret teams working on stuff like this for years.
Still waiting for a polished, professional game that I will actually want. On the other hand, I own more than 30 games for both DS and PSP. The iPhone is getting there, but it's still in an experimental stage right now. Apple themselves should release more games and show the game. Hopefully, Puzzle Quest will be my first games purchase for the iPhone.
you can download games to the dsi and it has two cameras and a SD card slot, here's a Hands-on http://ds.ign.com/articles/...
I'm still thoroughly unconvinced by iPhone games. A few as passable at best, but there's absolutely nothing that can compete with the best the PSP and DS have to offer. Where can I get Phoenix Wright, Final Fantasy Crisis Core, Zelda, or Castlevania on the iPhone? Of course the answer is, I can't. What I can get though are over a thousand bedroom coded pieces of shovelware which are expensive even when given away free.
The quality of iPhone games has to rise a hundred fold before it can be considered a proper gaming platform.
Totally agree with Moroboshi. Even those lower-quality PSP games are much more polished than the BEST on iPhone.
Impress people with QUALITY before consider it as a gaming platform!!!
Moroboshi: I believe your sentiments are exactly those of Neil Young behind ng:moco.
http://toucharcade.com/2008...
Well as a casual gamer I have stopped using my DS, and it hasn't been out of it's case since the app store opened. In fact I haven't even touched my Wii. I do think the quality does need to start improving, but we have already seen promise. And like the article says, we are talking about games that are a fraction of the price. For a casual gamer such as myself the app store is a godsend. I love the bonus feature of free updates too.
One of the things the iPhone and iPod Touch have over the DS and PSP is true portability. That's a much bigger thing then I would have imagined before. It's one of the reasons why I mostly play games on my iPod Touch now, much more then my DS Lite, and I've certainly bought *way* more apps for my iPod Touch (lots) then games for my DS Lite (absolutely none) since the debut of the AppStore. On the other hand, I really have my doubts that most people think of the iPod Touch as a gaming platform. Most people think of it as an iPod, and so far, while Apple has called it the "funnest" iPod, they don't really seem to be pushing it as a gaming platform. They are still pushing it as a music player that does other stuff too.
I agree with Moroboshi. While the iPhone hardware may be able to support some excellent games, if the current crop of applications for the iPhone is setting the standard, then they're going to be woefully underequipped to take on larger, established development houses. What we're seeing right now for the iPhone are a lot of "gee whiz" games that employ the accelerometer (because it's there) and the GPS functions (because it's there) rather then focusing on making a game stand on it's own without relying the the gimmicks. When I can get FF Tactics A2 quality games on my iPhone, you can have my DS. Until then, the iPhone will only be for gaming when my DS is recharging.
The thing about iPhone is, you carry it everywhere. Where my DS usually lies at home, unless I travel long journeys, my iPhone is always in my pocket, since it's my cell phone too. And while the Moroboshi statement is very true, I'm not underwhelmed, rather I'm overwhelmed, since everyone can make games for it. The only thing is, bigger company's need to wake up. They haven't been paying attention to the iPhone. And I think after this year, they will certainly wake up, and see that the iPhone will be played on more, just because you *have* to take it anywhere as a cell phone. The little time you have, like me on my lunchbreak, you will use to play a game.
People, complaining about the quality of the games is missing the point entirely.
This is about business. Any competitor in any business, no matter how good their product, has to be concerned about tons and tons of sales going to a rival.
Love it or hate it, Windows rose to global domination by selling a product that was good enough and cheap enough. Love them or hate them, are iPhone games good enough and cheap enough to make people stop seeking out a different portable gaming system?
The bar is NOT set at Zelda. Be afraid, be very afraid.
The million dollar questions is... Does the Touch contain the built in hardware to support games that can compete with the DS and PSP on visuals, sounds, length, and gameplay?
@Rawhide
Yes, it does. There have been several articles here on TouchArcade showcasing it's capabilities.
It's really just a matter of time.
Hey !!!
DS and PSP games are ~ US$20 games (long, stable, well developed, etc.)
iPhone games so far are ~ US$1 games (garage made games with little to no budget)
You can be sure that when we start seeing $20 games on the iPhone they will be as good or better than DS or PSP games.
One thing that we have to keep in mind is that gaming in the iPhone is different, since we have no buttons and only touch controls (which in my opinion sucks for gaming if are the only controls)
@james @rawhide
http://toucharcade.com/2008...
One more thing to remember.
Good games like the ones on the DS and PSP generally have taken over a year to develop. It's been only a short time since the SDK for the iphone was released.
Give a year after the SDK release and then compare the games to those on the DS and PSP. I'm sure there will be plenty of games that are polished and well thought-out. You can hardly expect those polished games to come out in 2 or 3 months.
Asphalt is already a really nice and polished game, and it seems that NFS will be even better.
Another really great thing about the iPhone is that the barrier to entry is so small, that although we may get a lot of crappy games, we are also going to get a lot of interesting games from individual developers and small companies that have a lot of interesting ideas, but would never be able to invest the money into developing a DS or PSP game.
I'm looking forward to when more AAA titles come to iPhone. Don't get me wrong, there are many decent cheap games made by indie developers, but there are also far more that are simply cluttering up the store. Having 1500 games is pointless if 1400 of them suck. But I expect great things in the future for sure.
Even if an iPhone game is as good or better as a $20 DS or PSP game, I doubt you will see it sell for $20 in the iPhone. The App Store market is wide-open compared to the DS and PSP markets, with more pressure on prices to race to zero. iPhone publishers can ship games at a lower price point than a comparable DS or PSP game because they don't have so many hands in their pockets between them and their customers -- they aren't selling games into a channel that requires production, warehousing, and transportation of packaged goods. And they aren't selling their games in direct competition with their OWN product, on the same rack, sold at reduced cost as a used game where all of the revenue goes to the store, and none of it flows back to the publisher. If Sony and Nintendo need to be worried, it isn't because of a price or quality comparison between games ... it's because the iPhone App market is so much more attractive to certain developers and publishers because of cost structure. One market is glutted with expensive games, a long and expensive distribution pipeline, and jaded customers; the other is wide-open with inexpensive games, a dirt-cheap distribution pipeline, and a growing market of new and casual gamers looking for cool diversions for their new iPhones.
Hi there:
About the price, you can find several freewares and even .99 price tag games but mostly those games are crap. Even for a indie, a .99 price tag is insane and many developer are not profiting with it.
Tough, those games can be considered as "first generation", where only a few ones are decent (i can name 3 or 4), other are nice (because the casual market) and the vast rest are crap.